Australia's longest running classical music label

John Mills

"It takes more than technical mastery to compose music and play it on the guitar in a way that really touches people's hearts. Australia's John Mills, has just such artistic talent. He uses even the silence between notes to shape his tender, lyrical melodies. Rather than blister the ears with cascades of notes, Mills has the courage to place each note like a precious star, allowing the emotion of the melody to carry through. . . . . Mills also happens to be among the 10 best guitarists that I've ever heard."

"It takes more than technical mastery to compose music and play it on the guitar in a way that really touches people's hearts. Australia's John Mills, has just such artistic talent. He uses even the silence between notes to shape his tender, lyrical melodies. Rather than blister the ears with cascades of notes, Mills has the courage to place each note like a precious star, allowing the emotion of the melody to carry through . . . Mills also happens to be among the 10 best guitarists that I've ever heard"

John Mills was born in Melbourne in 1953 and grew up in a musical household. When his cousin gave him an electric guitar at age ten, his love for the instrument was born. Like most young people of that time John followed the meteoric rise to fame of the Beatles, learning to play just about everything they wrote, by ear. Throughout his school years he formed several bands, developed an interest in blues as well as a passion for Jimi Hendrix, then at nineteen, decided to undertake a formal study of the classical guitar.

John developed a career as both a teacher and performer and spent many hours writing and composing. As John says, "I find the process of writing/composing quite mysterious; I don't set out to write anything in particular, but more through improvisation and meditation a piece will begin; lines and themes rattle around inside, quite often for months on end, and then something complete emerges. There are some pieces that I have been working on for years and have yet to find any completion, while others may be finished in a few nights. The feedback I get about my writing can range from that piece is so tranquil, to your music seems to dabble on the edges of darkness or that is such a sad piece . . . I like that my music can be all those things; I like the idea of being able to shake someone a little into feeling a response."

Compositions by John Mills appear on

John Mills is an Australian composer working and recording in Melbourne. He
grew up in a musical household that nurtured his love for the guitar, and by
his early twenties was a keenly sought after performer and teacher.